Fairey says Farewell to a Friend

The Arts District lost a local when Stuart Noble was struck by a car while crossing a Pasadena street last Friday morning. He helped make art, and street art, a visible force in downtown Los Angeles, including curating exhibitions for Pershing Square, and helping out one particular street artist. The renegade has something to say about Noble's passing.

I met Stuart in 1999 on my first
trip to London. Stuart was a partner in a flyer distribution and
promotions company called Don’t Panic! Don’t Panic curated an art poster
supplement that was distributed with the flyers. I think their goal was
to mix art and commerce. I was offered the Don’t Panic art poster as a
means of promoting my London art show, but I had to drive straight from
the airport to their offices and work on the art in order to meet their
print deadline. Stuart and the rest of the Don’t Panic! crew were very
enthusiastic about the design I made. Stuart then offered for me to tag
along to put up posters as he drove the Don’t Panic! delivery van
around London dropping off flyers. Stuart was on the job, so I wanted to
respect his time, but I kept seeing good spots, so I would ask him if
we had a second to pull over. The answer was always “yes!” and as he
started to understand my modus operandi he would drive out of his way to
take me to great spots.

<snip>

Stuart visited LA and liked it enough to move to the city in
2005. I was in need of a new poster printer, so Stuart signed on for the
job. He would also go on poster missions with me and took the
initiative to put posters up on his own as well. Stuart became an Obey
ambassador of sorts, talking to property owners about walls for my art.
Many of the murals I have done in the downtown LA Arts District were
organized by Stuart. Stuart was quite a prolific purveyor of Obey on
every front!